No general method to detect fraud

Fraud and deception share a common two-part structure: a logical component (exploiting cognitive biases like confirmation bias or survivorship bias) and a finesse component (sleight of hand that hides the logical trap). Using examples from the Monty Hall problem, an investment letter scam, and Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, the author argues there can never be a universal algorithm to detect fraud because scams first corrupt your perception of reality before exploiting your reasoning. The best defense is repeated exposure to benign examples of deception — a kind of intellectual vaccination — rather than any checklist or ruleset.